The Western Press focused yesterday on
images of Serbian residents of northern Mitrovica (in
Kosovo) pelting American soldiers with rocks and
snowballs. Nowhere did the 'free world' media present the
Serbian side of the story. Here are three compelling
reports from Tanjug, the Yugoslav press agency. Thanks to
Nebojsa Malic for the translation.

One thing to keep in mind here: you will
notice that the Tanjug reports below are not ethnically
negative. That is, they are not directed against
"Albanians" but rather against anti-Serbian
racism and also against the KFOR policy of conquest and
explusion of Serbs. Meanwhile, the thousands of Albanians
(most of them apparently from outside Metrovica and even
outside Kosovo) who demonstrated on Feb. 21 want the
Serbian people and other ethnic groups driven out. The
Serbs perceive KFOR, particularly the US and Britain, as
supporting this goal. Are they wrong? I think not. -- JI,www.tenc.net [emperors-clothes]

Kosovska Mitrovica (TANJUG)
- Early this morning, KFOR soldiers from the ranks of
American and German units barged into the Tech College
and the Technical High School in the downtown of northern
Mitrovica, in the most arrogant and savage manner.
Literally demolishing the school premises,
"peacekeepers" then begin the search of the
surrounding buildings and apartments.

American KFOR troops took over that section of
the city, boxed it in with armored vehicles, strong
barbed wire around the perimeter and started searching
all apartments and brutally detaining residents. Around
six in the morning, Americans had blocked the area around
the Tech College, Tech High and the student campus,
searching them and the apartments in the Kneza Milosa and
John Kennedy Streets.

Americans broke into apartments if there was
no one to open the door, or the residents had not jumped
out of their beds to open them. Smashing the doors, they
entered the apartments with rifles at ready and searched
for allegedly hidden weapons and ammunition. In the
streets, they searched the bags of citizens who went to
purchase their daily food staples - milk, bread and so
forth. American KFOR troops, who had snuck into the
northern part of the city in the night, have been turning
over the heart of the city, causing a revolt among the
Serb population.

One Serb family testified to reporters that
among the so-called Americans they recognized their
former Albanian neighbors, who took DM 450 away from them
during the "search."

When American KFOR troops entered the student
campus and started their brutal search, the students
showered them with snowballs and rocks. Another
"visit" was paid to the Tech College and Tech
School, accompanied with widespread destruction. At the
Tech High School they actually stormed the classrooms and
smashed computers and other equipment. According to Prof.
Dragan Radulovic of the Tech College, he was prevented
from giving an exam, evicted along with his students, and
then watched as the lab was trashed. "I was supposed
to start the exam at nine, but they forced all of my
students out and searched the Dean's office, looking at
each and every document. They smashed all the closets and
broke apart even the boiler at the heating room. We
warned them that this is a place of higher education,
that there is nothing here of value to them, and that
they should not touch anything, but it was all in vain.
They even forced us to open our [money deposit] safe and
show them what was in there," says Radulovic.

Such behavior by American
"peacekeepers" caused a demonstration by about
2000 angry citizens, who chased the intruders away around
10:30 with a shower of rocks and snowballs. The American
savagery struck even the Children's Emergency Room, which
they broke into and searched. According to information
available so far, Stevan Zigic and Slobodan Mitrovic have
been injured, hit in the face with rifle-butts, while
Slavoljub Jovic and Drago Siljegovic were pepper-sprayed
in the eyes.

Witnesses claim there are at least ten injured
Serbs. Around 11:00, American position was taken over by
the French and the Germans, who have been standing still
and not taking any further measures. The city was also
"seeded" by helicopter-dropped leaflets warning
the populace to turn their weapons in "as requested
by KFOR, while the soldiers will treat you with respect
and dignity." The leaflet's text was being repeated
from loudspeakers mounted on UN vehicles, cruising the
city.

***

Andjelkovic:
New Evidence of KFOR and UNMIK's complicity in ethnic
cleansing Belgrade (TANJUG)
- Chairman of the Interim Governing Committee of
Kosovo-Metohija Zoran Andjelkovic said this morning that
the events in Mitrovica reaffirm that the international
military presence cooperates with the Albanian terrorists
in their ethnic cleansing of Kos-Met.

"Since neither the French nor the
British complied with the KLA's demand to expel
the Serbs from Mitrovica, the American and German
troops staged a 'Kristallmorgen' [crystal
morning] today by barging into the Technical
College and the school, smashing the classrooms
and equipment," Andjelkovic told Tanjug.
According to him, KFOR reinforcements stormed
Mitrovica this morning with dozens of armored
cars and vehicles, putting psychological pressure
on the Serbs "so they would leave northern
Mitrovica of their own will, thus enabling the
American soldiers to finish KLA's work and give
them the right to take over the city."

Andjelkovic warns of this method of ethnic
cleansing because the international troops seem to think
that the problem disappears when the Serbs are expelled,
since there are no KFOR or UNMIK reports on Pec, Istok,
Klina, Djakovica, Decani and Prizren, for example,
ethnically cleansed of Serbs, Turks, Muslims, Gorani...
The problem exists only on the day of the actual
expulsion, and then it disappears.

If things are seen in this light, there would
be trouble only on the day when Serbs are forced out of
Mitrovica.

"We think that this logic is prevalent in
some centers of power in the world, the ones that ordered
the bombing of our country," Andjelkovic said.
"Ten days ago, Hashim Thaci, KLA boss and
practically the man in charge of the 'protection corps'
[Kosovo police corps, staffed by members of the Kosovo
Liberation Army] as well, tried to accuse Serbs for the
assaults on Mitrovica. He said that the Serbs bombed
their own cafe and injured 15 young people. This was an
attempt to pressure KFOR to evict the Serbs from northern
Mitrovica with KLA's help," he recalled.

According to Andjelkovic, the international
community is no longer talking about a multiethnic
Kos-Met. "They are saying this is difficult and
impossible, showing that their earlier pronouncements
were only a cover story and not their true interest and
goal...The only remaining multi-ethnic part of KosMet is
northern Mitrovica. That is why the KLA, KFOR and UNMIK
are attacking it constantly - because it is an ugly
reminder of the possiblity of multiethnic existence in
Kosmet, and a thorn in the eye of those who want it
destroyed," said Andjelkovic. For that purpose -
destroying multi-ethnicity - he says, Americans and
Germans stormed the center of northern Mitrovica this
morning. That is why a large Albanian demonstration is in
the works, and that is why so many attempts have been
made to cross the Ibar bridge and do everything possible
for that part of the city to stop representing a
community of 2500 Albanians and 4500 Serbs.

***

Kosovska Mitrovica (TANJUG) - J. Jovanovic,
member of the Government and Judiciary Subcommittee on
the Yugoslav committee for cooperation with UNMIK told
reporters that he was present during the attack on the
Technical College in Mitrovica. He witnessed how doors on
laboratories and other rooms were torn apart by axes.
"The Tech College looks like it's just been sacked
by a horde of barbarians," he said.

According to him, there is no door, closet or
drawer still on its hinges.

The soldier who axed through the door of
Professor Radulovic's office asked politely if he could
light a cigarette. "The pinnacle of cynicism,"
Jovanovic said. Javonovic toured the Tech High School,
also a target of KFOR's assault. The school and nearby
buildings were surrounded by soldiers as if they were a
fortified position, rather than an institution of higher
education, Jovanovic testified. The school was
demolished; everything that could be broken and smashed
was, and all the books and notes were scattered on the
floor. Jovanovic pointed out that floorboards were ripped
up in some classrooms, and the soldiers even ripped out
of the wall a coat rack.

"The official explanation was a tip that
there is a large quantity of weapons and ammunition
hidden in the Tech School," he said. He also said
that the Americans and the French troops did indeed find
some weapons, ammunition and non-explosive devices. But,
it was a museum collection, placed in the former Civil
Defense classroom. [All schools had dummy weapons for
military training in the former Yugoslavia.]

"There were several landmines, both
anti-personnel and anti-tank, in the collection, which
were used as classroom props. They were specially marked
to be distinguishable both visually and functionally from
the real models," Jovanovic added. "Several
hundred blanks - bullets, hand grenades, detonators - and
air guns were found as well," he said, "but all
of them were part of the museum exhibit of former
educational props...These items were all impounded to
serve as an excuse for the savagery of KFOR and to
justify the announcement that the Tech School was a major
depot of arms and ammunition for 'Serb terrorists'
operating in northern Mitrovica," Jovanovic
assessed.

He invited all who want to find out the truth
to ask him for the complete documentation on the training
arms and bullets found at the Tech School, so that
"CNN would not miscount the bullets and grenades,
which they are likely to do."

Jovanovic added that it is not a coincidence
that today's barbaric action was undertaken by American
and German troops. That this morning's events were
planned in advance is proven by the strong presence of
foreign reporters and TV crews in the area of KFOR's
activity. They stood right in front of the institutions
that were attacked and sent their reports from there.
"It is obvious this was a grand farce aimed to
intimidate the citizens of northern Mitrovica and expel
the Serbs as soon as possible under the guise of
restoring multiethnicity."